Project Spotlight: A Timber Frame Dream
For years, Kathy had dreamed about living in a timber frame house. The beauty of the design and the wood itself had always captivated her. Eventually, through the years of Kathy researching and talking about building a timber frame house, her husband Ralph came to love this style of home as well.
Ralph and Kathy found Metzler Home Builders through a search for Lancaster home builders, and the perfect lot on which to build their timber frame house. Metzler’s then worked with them through the design/build process of their dream home. The Metzler team worked closely with Timber Frame Services Inc. to construct this unique home using their custom made timbers and structurally insulated panels (SIP Panels).
To see more pictures and hear first-hand from Ralph and Kathy how Metzler Home Builders made their dream home a reality, visit our featured homes section.
Customizing Your Interior: Plumbing & Faucet Selections
When building your home or starting an addition/renovation project with Metzler Home Builders, your plumbing and faucet selections will be one of the first interior decisions that you’ll need to make, as plumbing rough-ins generally happen immediately after the house is framed.
There are many different options to consider when making your faucet selections, such as style, finish and handle spread. By the time to you get to this step, you may have a style and finish in mind, or you may not have given it much thought yet.
One way we can help you is by suggesting you visit our plumbing supplier’s showroom. There, you can touch the faucets to see how they look and function. While at the showroom, you will have the opportunity to pick out your toilet, bathtub and shower selections, as well.
Not the same as big-box stores.
What is interesting to note is that while the big box stores, such as Lowes and Home Depot, do sell some of the same brands that we supply, the faucets they carry are generally not of the same quality. Even though they look identical, they are made with lesser internal components.
If you choose to purchase your fixtures through one of these chain stores, we’ll gladly install them, but keep in mind that we are not able to warranty the installation of these the same as we do the faucets from our own supplier.
No matter where you purchase your plumbing fixtures and faucets, however, we want you to get the look and function that you want. This is why we’ll assist you as best as we can in making wise interior choices for your home
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Halloween Safety Tips for Around the Home
Halloween is one of the most popular U.S. holidays because both adults and kids alike can get dressed up, pretend a little bit and have fun. Here are a few tips to keep your family safe on this spook-tacular holiday
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No open flames. Most of us know to use glow-sticks or battery-operated candles in our pumpkins outside, but keep in mind that you’ll want to minimize open flame inside your home this time of year, too. Costumes, especially the arms, are often “loose” and can easily catch fire, and many of the fall decorations we have in the house – straw, dried flowers and crepe paper – are all highly flammable.
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Watch light bulb placement. Light bulbs are hot when then are on, and any of the above-mentioned decorations can also heat up and catch fire. Watch where you place your light bulbs to make sure that nothing around them can catch fire.
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Keep walkways and front doors clutter-free. You will see many trick-or-treaters, but with masks and bulky costumes, sometimes these kids aren’t the most coordinated. They fumble and bump into things while trying to get to you. Keep your walkway and front porch area clutter-free so they are less likely to hurt themselves.
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Remove tripping hazards. Kids get very excited to get to the next house to say “Trick or Treat,” and sometimes they don’t take the logical path and instead race through your yard. Make sure that garden hoses, tools, skateboards and bikes are all put away.
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Outdoor lighting. Strobe lights and other scary lights are fun. Just make sure that any electrical devices you put outside are safe for outdoor use.
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Use reflective tape. To keep your own trick-or-treaters highly visible, in addition to giving them flashlights or glow-sticks, use reflective tape on their costumes, shoes and loot bags.
Your October Home Maintenance Checklist
Fall is the season to button-up your home before winter sets in. The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts a cold, wet and snowy winter in Central PA, so it is important that you take time now to inspect your home and fix anything that could potentially be a problem later on.
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Schedule furnace maintenance. We mentioned this last month, but it is worth repeating again. To keep your furnace in the best working order, have your HVAC contractor do a “preventative maintenance” checkup on your furnace. They will clean your furnace and inspect it for any parts that need to be repaired or replaced to keep your furnace in good working order all winter long.
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Disconnect hoses. If you still have any garden hoses attached to the house, now is the time to detach and store them. Make sure the pipe that leads to the outside spigot is completely drained and turned off (from the inside). If water is left inside the pipe, it can expand and burst during the freezing months.
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Store containers and paints indoors. Remove the soil from your clay or ceramic pots and planters. Dirt left in these containers could freeze and cause the pots to crack or break if left outside. Additionally, remove all liquid materials, like paint and caulk, from the unheated garage and outdoor shed.
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Check weather stripping around doors. Check the weather stripping around all exterior doors and replace, if needed. Pay particular attention to the seals around your garage door to keep this area insulated tightly, as well as to keep out small animals seeking shelter.
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Organize your garage. Store summer garden tools and toys, and bring out the snow shovels and ice melt. Make sure a snow/ice scrapper is in each vehicle, too, as we often seen freezing rain in the latter part of the month.
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Clear fall leaves. Continue to clear fall leaves from gutters and around your furnace intake pipes to prevent any blockage.
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Lawn reseeding. Cool nights and warm days make it an ideal time to aerate your yard and reseed and/or patch up areas. There is still enough sun during the day for the seeds to germinate before going into hibernation, and come spring, you’ll have a fuller, healthier yard to enjoy.
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Inspect your deck, stairs and walkways. Take the time to inspect your deck and outdoor walkways for signs of worn boards or cracks, and fix and replace as needed. This could prevent someone from slipping and falling during the icy winter months.
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Make sure your roof is in good shape. Your roof is your home’s first line of defense, so if you notice anything unusual, contact a professional roofer to get it inspected. A little money invested now will save you a bundle later.
Building Your Custom Home – Permits & Financing
Over the last few months, we’ve provided an overview of the process of building your custom home. You can find past articles in this series on our blog.
Once your plans are finalized, it is time to apply for building permits and also to secure your construction loan financing.
Permits.
As your builder, we will always handle securing the building permit, but there are other permits that are usually needed before we can do so, such as permits for sewer or septic and the driveway.
There are also situations where a stormwater management permit may be required, and the process to acquire this particular permit can take some time. In this case, if you aren’t already working with an engineering professional, we can refer one to help you through this process.
If your home is being built on a lot where more than one acre of ground will be disturbed (this includes the home, driveway, septic system and stormwater management), we’ll need to submit an additional permit with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters. When this is the case, an engineering professional must submit drawings to be reviewed and approved, and this process can take months to complete.
No matter how quick or drawn-out the permitting process is, we’ll guide you through it. While securing additional permits can often be a process that is longer than you’d like, especially since you are excited to be building your custom home, the good news is that once we have all the other permits, applying and receiving a building permit typically only takes a few weeks. Then we can get started on moving dirt, setting the foundation and framing your house.
Financing.
If you don’t already have a lender, we can help you get connected with one of our preferred lenders for financing the construction of your home. Our lenders offer a wealth of knowledge and can help our customers through the construction loan process – from understanding how it works to communicating what documents are needed to secure the loan. Your lender should be familiar with the construction loan process to make it as streamlined as possible for you.
Building your home requires a different type of loan, a construction loan, than selecting one of our homes that is already built. To get a construction loan, your lender will need the signed contract, specs and plans in order to begin, and the approval process generally takes six weeks.
With a construction loan, you secure a loan for the cost of the house, and from there, a payment schedule (called draws) is established. This means that while the house is under construction, there are set milestones when we receive payment (typically four times). The advantage to you is that while your home is under construction, you pay interest only on the amount that is drawn down – not on the full mortgage amount. When the house is complete, you settle on the entire loan, as you would on any other mortgage.
While both the permitting and financing processes for building a custom home are becoming a bit more challenging, we have the expertise and resources to help you through them to get your project started with the least amount of frustration and delays.
At Metzler Home Builders, we build homes of all sizes and styles for all budgets. Learn more about our custom home building services.
9 Tips to Make Your Home More Attractive to Buyers
If you are thinking about selling your home (perhaps to build a custom home), it is important to look at it with a fresh perspective. When preparing to sell your house, the goal should be to make it as attractive to potential buyers as you can – so that your home sells quickly and for the most profit.
Is twice-a-year maintenance on my furnace necessary?
To keep your furnace, heat pump or air conditioner operating at peak efficiency, JK Mechanical recommends a twice-a-year tune up. Your equipment should be serviced once during the heating season and once during the cooling season. When your system is clean, it doesn’t work as hard, which means you pay less in your monthly utility bills.
Your September Home Maintenance Checklist
Can you feel the crispness in the air? It is early autumn; school is back in session and many of us get the urge to organize and be more productive around the house (in between football games and great tailgating parties, of course).
Project Spotlight: A Place to Retire
After inheriting a 1970’s ranch home, Greg and Janice were not only faced with the task of cleaning out the home, but they also needed to determine what should happen with the property. After much thought, they realized this home provided an excellent opportunity for them to move from their three story row home to one floor living in a detached home. The only thing that stood in their way was tackling a whole house renovation.
September is National Preparedness Month: Are You Ready
NOTE: This home tip is provided by Mike Diehl, Electrical Department Manager at JK Mechanical
September is notorious for bring severe weather to our area, so it is important to have a game plan in place in case of an emergency helps to ensure your family is safe and secure during a weather event. In addition to preparing an emergency kit, you can also protect your home, food and water from prolonged power outages with an automatic standby generator.